Intel Core i3, i5 PCs Debut

Intel this week is announcing availability of its first 32nm "Westmere" processors, and the first few reviews of such systems are just beginning to appear. These chips, known as Clarkdale for desktops and Arrandale for notebooks, will be sold under the Core i3 and i5 names.

Intel this week is announcing availability of its first 32nm "Westmere" processors, and the first few reviews of such systems are just beginning to appear. These chips, known as Clarkdale for desktops and Arrandale for notebooks (and often to be sold under the Core i3 and i5 names), have two big distinctions: they are the first 32-nm CPUs in production, and the first major PC chips to be delivered with the graphics integrated within the chip package itself - in this case, with a 32-nm CPU die and a 45nm graphics die.

All of this has been expected. It has been part of Intel's roadmaps for desktop and laptop processors for some time. These processors have dual cores, but with "hyperthreading" so they can run up to 4 threads simultaneously, and most have "turbo boost" that lets the processor shut down one core and run the other at a faster speed when necessary. Typically, they have 4 Mbytes of cache.

In general, the reviews show very solid performance from the dual-core CPUs, and improved, though certainly not exciting, graphics performance. The graphics, which has been a concern, is good enough for some older 3D games or running harder games at low-resolution but certainly not as good as the Nvidia and AMD/ATI solutions we've seen. However, it seems good enough for HD and Blu-Ray video playback and basic gaming, and that's probably enough for a lot of people. On the mobile side,battery life seems to be pretty much in-line with current expectations, though we've yet to see reviews of any "ultra-low voltage" versions of these chips.

Almost every vendor of laptops and desktops has new models coming out this week with these chips. The first such systems will not be the lowest cost units; but they won't be the high-end systems either. (Those will still mostly feature quad core chips from Intel and AMD). In the low-end, my guess is we'll still see plenty of the older Intel chips around (typically under Pentium or Celeron brand names) for some time; and of course, AMD has plenty of good Athon II-based systems as well.

The bottom line seems to be that mainstream desktops and notebooks will get offer even better performance this year, while raising the bar for minimum graphics and video playback. Gamers and others who need high-performance will look elsewhere, but for most people, this should be quite good news.
Originally posted to Michael Miller's blog, Forward Thinking.Back to top

Michael J. Miller's Forward Thinking Blog: forwardthinking.pcmag.com
Michael J. Miller is chief information officer at Ziff Brothers Investments, a private investment firm. From 1991 to 2005, Miller was editor-in-chief of PC Magazine, responsible for the editorial direction, quality and presentation of the world's largest computer publication.
Until late 2006, Miller was the Chief Content Officer for Ziff Davis Media, responsible for overseeing the editorial positions of Ziff Davis's magazines, websites, and events. As Editorial Director for Ziff Davis Publishing since 1997, Miller took an active role in...
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